With the National Hot Rod Association currently on hiatus due to the growing COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, leading online drag racing magazine Competition Plus has decided to fill the gap with a fun, new online drag racing league.

The Virtual Reality Hot Rod Association (VHRA) founded by CompetitionPlus.com launched this week on CompetitionPlus.com with an online, fan-vote style competition complete with multiple rounds of qualifying and eliminations.

With NHRA drag racing at a standstill because of the coronavirus pandemic, Matt Smith is trying to make the best of the situation.

Smith, a three-time Pro Stock Motorcycle world champion, the last coming in 2018, said his team is keeping busy.

Leah Pruett isn’t shy in front of a TV camera and she isn’t afraid to meet with marketing decision-makers, something fans have come to expect from the driver of an 11,000-horsepower dragster who has run at speeds more than 334 miles an hour. But her boss is starting to think of her admirably frenzied quest for sponsorship dollars and social-media supremacy as a “distraction.”

She clearly is proud of her message to the younger crop of drag-racing fans and proud of her ability to stay afloat in the sport when other talented racers have been sidelined with financial concerns.

Paul Noakes, driver of the Tri Corp Transportation Dragster for Leverich Racing, had one wish for this weekend.

He said, “The biggest message that I've got is I hopefully get a round-win so I can at least say one thing on the TV: Don't give up your dreams.”

Like almost the entire sports world, NHRA drag racing is stuck in idle because of the coronavirus pandemic.

On March 16, the NHRA announced it was suspending all NHRA drag racing for 30 days in response to the situation.

The Santo’s Super Thunder meeting scheduled for Good Friday, April 10 at Willowbank Raceway, Queensland has been cancelled.

Headed into the final day of qualifying for the inaugural race of the Virtual Reality Hot Rod Association, the Clash at the County, a fictional race held at the legendary Orange County International Raceway with qualifying and eliminations determined by your votes. Qualifying ends tonight at 6 PM, EST, 

Quain Stott admits for one of the few times since creating drag racing's most-stringent period-correct Gasse series, he's taking the path of least resistance. 

"After tons of research, we have found that the risk of the government stepping in and shutting us down is too great to chance," said Southeast Gassers Association founder Quain Stott. "Sending racers, fans and sponsors on an average 7-hour trip only to be told sorry y'all can't race just don't make good sense. As most know I love to stand my ground but only when the outcome hurts just me. This time the wrong outcome will hurt 1,000's of others. This is not about the virus it's about the panic the fake news media is causing because of the virus. It's not about the money because we have great sponsors that would cover that. It's about trying my best to be a good leader and make decisions that is best for all involved.

Even before the forced postponement of the Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla., this week, the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series hasn’t gone quite the way three-time Funny Car Robert Hight would have imagined or liked.

The John Force Racing President exited in Round 2 at the Winternationals at Pomona, Calif., and lost in the opening round at Phoenix. But Hight was a winner March 1 at NASCAR’s Auto Club of Southern California 400 at Fontana, Calif. Arguably, he outdebated and outcampaigned Monster Energy Cup star Joey Logano in the reprise of their Drags Or Checkered Flags social-media challenge to decide which is the best racing series in America.

In good-natured but obviously prejudiced prepared campaign ads, Hight and Logano stated their cases for the supremacy of NHRA drag racing and NASCAR stock-car racing. Hight had the edge, having defeated Logano handily in the Drags Or Checkered Flags 2016 inaugural that the Auto Club of Southern California is staging.

With the National Hot Rod Association currently on a hiatus due to the growing COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, leading online drag racing magazine Competition Plus has decided to fill the gap with a fun, new online drag racing league.

The Virtual Reality Hot Rod Association (VHRA) will launch today on CompetitionPlus.com with an online, fan-vote style competition complete with multiple rounds of qualifying and eliminations. The VHRA will pit real NHRA racers in the Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock, Pro Stock Motorcycle and Pro Modified classes against one another in an interactive “race” similar to past fan-vote competitions on CompetitionPlus.com.

“Sometimes, you just have to think outside of the box,” said Bobby Bennett, owner of CompetitionPlus.com. “With everything that’s happened to drag racing, through nobody’s fault, this is the hand that we’ve been dealt. Instead of whining and moaning about everything, we just thought it would be neat to have a little fun during the downtime. When you can’t put race cars on the track, the next best thing you can do is virtual reality.”